MOVING IMAGE PRESERVATION
OF PUGET SOUND

Moving Image Preservation of Puget Sound, a non-profit formed in 2014, enables archives, libraries, and museums, as well as arts, science and heritage organizations, to convert their legacy video recordings to digital formats, allowing new access to our region’s cultural heritage.

What the community is saying about MIPOPS

“In my 35 years as an archivist – and one who is very active in professional circles – this is the most exciting development I’ve been associated with. This kind of “consortium” work can be a huge benefit to the profession and serve as a great model.”–Scott Cline, retired Seattle City Archivist, from 1985-2016

“How lucky we are to have MIPoPS in our community. Their critical services have allowed us to discover so much meaningful historic content on numerous media formats: the artists who exhibit or participate, the Museum personnel and other experts who help us understand art, our important architecture, and other interesting aspects of our institutional history. Without their assistance, we would have no understanding of the rich content we have in our media collection. Importantly, the MIPoPS Team has been extremely easy to work with, helping us clearly understand the process and answering our questions every step of the way.”–Traci Timmons, Librarian, Seattle Art Museum

“MIPoPS has created a unique workshop of equipment and has developed the skills to work with the interface of old and new technology… It was impressive to see the skill and the desire to capture the best possible image during the archival process and I feel I learned a tremendous amount about this and the value of preserving these creative treasures.”– Sally Sykes-Wylie, Seattle Mime Theater and the Sykes Group

What MIPoPS can do for you

MIPoPS assists organizations that have documentaries, oral histories, art and dance video, public works video, industrial and educational video, “orphaned” films and other material on videotape. We help identify and appraise, digitize and make accessible these materials, and emphasize free access to the content to the general public. MIPoPS is funded by 4Culture, NEH and NHPRC and welcomes donations from individuals.

Our Services

MIPoPS digitizes VHS, Betcam, Laser Disc, U-matic, Hi-8, 1-inch, DVCAM, D-2 tapes, creating preservation and access digital file formats supported by the heritage and archival community. There is an equal measure of hands-on participation and hand-holding, from the appraisal process through online access to the content from the newly digitized tapes.

Digital Preservation

Videotape objects are degrading at an alarming rate, a situation widely recognized as a “magnetic media crisis.” In addition, the playback equipment is no longer being manufactured, and the professional expertise to maintain the equipment is scarce. MIPoPS exists to assist organizations assess and preserve the original object, and convert and provide access to the content at the MIPoPS Internet Archive Collection page.

About MIPoPS

MIPoPS was formed by and is staffed by archivists. MIPoPS adheres to best practices and develops guidelines for assessing and preserving the original tape formats and tape players, quality control during and after the digitization process, and educating the broader community about the magnetic media crisis.

Moving Image Preservation of Puget Sound is a non-profit 501-(c)(3) corporation formed to help preserve our cultural heritage by assisting archives, libraries, and other organizations with the conversion of analog video recordings to digital formats according to archival best practices.